John Evans' soccer tournament brings together different languages, cultures

JOSHUA POLSON/jpolson@greeleytribune.com
Christian Acosta, 12, sprints to the goal during a soccer tournament Thursday afternoon at John Evans I.B. Middle School in Greeley. The tournament was created by the Advancement Via Individual Determination students to help unite the school's diverse student body. Soccer was chosen because of its popularity around the world.

JOSHUA POLSON/jpolson@greeleytribune.com
Jordi Trejo, 13, chases a pass from Cesar Barrera, 14, as they practice before the soccer tournament put on by Advancement Via Individual Determination students at John Evans I.B. Middle School. Jordi and Cesar were among the AVID students who chose the soccer tournament the sport to help unite the school.

JOSHUA POLSON/jpolson@greeleytribune.com
Students at John Evans I.B. Middle School find their assigned teams during the AVID Culture Cup Wednesday afternoon. There were 33 separate teams comprised of students from at least three different countries on each team.

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There may be 16 different nationalities represented at John Evans I.B. Middle School, but there is just one language.

“Soccer,” said Jairo Lopez, 14. “It is a language we can all speak. We all know what we’re saying when we play soccer.”

Niki Quinby’s eighth-grade Advancement Via Individual Determination students never knew until recently that their school was home to students from so many different countries, but they did know how it can divide the student body.

“There is a lot of racism going on in our school,” Jairo said. “And we want to make them all friends.”

AVID is a college-readiness program in all of Greeley’s middle and high schools. It targets students who are at risk of not graduating from high school, and it is designed to increase performance through individualized motivation. It teaches study skills, strategies for critical thinking, organization and collaboration skills, to name a few.

So when Quinby charged her class with finding a way to unite the school, soccer seemed the perfect answer.

“It is a world wide sport,” said Jordi Trejo, 13. “Soccer brings people together from different countries.”

On Wednesday and Thursday the AVID group hosted the school’s first ever Culture Cup — featuring 33 teams on four fields in a single-elimination tournament.

Each team of seven or eight players is represented by at least three different countries, and the groups were responsible for making new flags that combined those countries.

“Just like the World Cup,” Tanner Currier said.

When Quinby approved the tournament, she never in her wildest imagination thought it would draw the interest of 232 students throughout the school, but her AVID students proved determined when they paired up and visited every classroom to explain the idea to their schoolmates.

Quinby’s class had just watched a movie about the genocide that took place in Rwanda and the reconciliation of native Rwandans to move on and forgive.

Students talked about how they judge each other just because they are different.

“It came out of a conversation about what really needs to be addressed in the school,” Quinby said. “They just said to me, ‘We’ve got people here we’re not really nice to.’ I was so proud that they took a step back and really looked at their actions. These kids will just make you cry.”

Students created teams and brackets, wrote a letter to the physical education teacher to ask to borrow equipment, spoke with the principal and other administrators to see what time they could schedule the event, and then made posters advertising the competition.

“It has been a great team-building activity,” Quinby said. “They were taught that if Rwanda had that much forgiveness possible, they could share that.”

That was one lesson that clearly was not hard for this group to learn.

“Not only is this just to play soccer,” Jairo said. “But to go out and still be friends later. We want to make them feel like this is a safe home for them.”

Sherrie Peif covers education for The Tribune. If you have an idea for a feature, contact Sherrie at (970) 392-5632, by email at speif@greeleytribune.com. Follow her on Twitter @dawgsmom4.